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I decided it was time for an update. Things have been going well with this pregnancy and overall I’m feeling good!

I think my stomach has popped in the last couple of weeks and I’ve been feeling much larger lately. I’m still getting use to this new body of mine.😉

Energy wise I am doing good, I have days were I hit points of extreme exhaustion then other day days where I have good amounts of energy. I have been trying to go to bed earlier which has been helping and I decided to cut my hours down at work, which has been extremely helpful and has been allowing me to get more rest.

I have been feeling lots of kicks lately and I’ve been loving it! Emmanuel has even gotten to feel her move and it is so special!

A couple weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to Cowboy Stadium to watch one of our friends from Tarleton State play in a football game. We had never been to the new stadium, so it was neat to get to see it all first hand. We made a weekend of it and enjoyed getting to spend time together as a couple. I truly am blessed with such an amazing husband!

* I am squinty faced and pale but my man is cute!

Overall things with us are going well and we are thankful to the Lord for this sweet girl He’s given us! We can’t wait to meet her!

If you read my last post, you know that a lot has been going on with us lately!

One thing I didn’t mention was that we are pregnant! And we are SO very excited about it! We are truly so thankful to the Lord for this baby!

In case you were wondering or didn’t figure it out from the above photo, yes, we are still in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia!🙂 We are so excited that our children will get to have a sibling and we will get to have two kiddos. Both blessings from the Lord!! We are truly beyond thrilled about both of our babies!

I am currently 4 months pregnant and everything with the baby has been looking good!

Something that is also incredibly neat is that both of my sisters are pregnant right now too!! It has been so neat to get to share pregnancy information with both of them and learn from them! We are all about 2 months apart. The Lord’s timing is truly best and He has given me such a blessing to be able to walk through this pregnancy while my sisters are experiencing similar things!

We can’t wait to meet this little one and are so thankful to the Lord for them!

I woke up this morning at 5 am, a time much earlier than I would ever choose to get up, but I knew I needed to get some things done. My mother in law is coming this weekend, so I wanted to finish up some cleaning and get the crock pot meal prepared before I headed off to work.

As I was darting from place to place, the Lord stopped me and spoke to my heart. In the past there have been many times that I have pushed snooze on my alarm when I should have gotten up to get into God’s word and soak in His truth unrushed and unhurried. But so many times I have continued sleeping just to get a few extra minutes before work and either missed my time with the Lord altogether or had to rush through my reading due to a lack of time. Yet, here I was at 5:00 in the morning willing to get up to make our house look presentable…..to people please.

Now, our family has never required that we clean our house before they arrive or anything, don’t get me wrong. But, I am a people pleaser to a fault, and because of this I put a lot of pressure on myself to makes things the best I can make them for others. While it is not wrong to have a clean home and a presentable room for guests to stay in, what is wrong is putting others before the Lord. And this is something I’ve been realizing that I do far too often.

Why am I willing to sacrifice sleep for others, but I am not willing to sacrifice sleep for the Lord? The Lord is most important and time with Him is of the utmost importance!

Exodus 20:3 says “You shall have no other gods before me”.

Too often, and I think most of the time unknowingly, I make pleasing others my “god”, when the Lord clearly states that we should have NO other gods before Him. Now, “gods” can take on many different forms. For some is it popularity, social media, wealth, addictions, shopping, their time and the list could go on and on. But this is not how the Lord intended for us to live our lives. He is to be the central focus of all that we do and all that we are.

The Lord truly challenged my heart this morning and reminded me that He should always be first and foremost in my life and He is worth it! Is there anything that you are putting before the Lord today? I would encourage you to surrender it to the Lord and let Him take control over those areas of weakness.

I realize it’s been a while since the last time that I posted, but a lot has been happening with us lately!!

In April my husband took a position as senior pastor at first baptist church in a new town in west Texas. He has been doing such an incredibly great job and I am so proud of him! The Lord has truly been preparing him for this role and through God’s strength he has been excelling! I am so honored to be married to this man of mine!

With the wirl wind of moving and transitioning into a new location, we have been going nonstop! So we decided it was time for a little vacation/rest.

We were able to find this great little cabin near the lake and it was wonderful!

It was so good to get away and take some time with just my honey! I truly love my husband and enjoy spending time with him! Getting rest was also much needed and appreciated! It was fantastic to not have a schedule and just relax each day!

The place we stayed was right on the lake, so we took advantage of that and swam as often as we could! We also enjoyed just sitting in these cute chairs and watching the ripples in the water from boats passing.

I’m so thankful we got the opportunity to take some time together.

After we returned from our vacation we then jumped into an exciting week of Vacation Bible School at our church. While it was certainly a busy week, I really did love helping out with it this year! I love seeing children learn about Jesus for the first time and finally having God’s truth click in their hearts and minds.

Recently Emmanuel had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to South America where to Lord was truly at work!

We truly serve a faithful God and we are so thankful for Him bringing us to this new location and new phase in life! We look forward to all He has in store for us!🙂

This past month I turned 30! Turning 30 seems so old to me! And there are many things that I thought I would have achieved by the age of 30…the primary one being a mother. When I was younger I always had imagined that when I was 30 I would be married with 2-3 children and still growing. But, God has had other plans for me. Plans that I never would have imagined. My faith has been tested and my heart has been stretched to lengths I didn’t know possible. And all the while God has been there right by my side through all the hurt and pain, continually drawing me and challenging me. Calling me to surrender my all to Him. It is hard to let go of things that you have always desired, but I know that I serve a GREAT God, who is in control and knows my future. A God who is ever faithful and continually by my side. A God who truly loves me deep down to the core of who I am. A God who is reliable and who continually gives me more than I deserve. So I praise the Lord for this year! For allowing me to reach 30 with so many blessings! The blessing of an amazing, wonderful and loving husband! The blessing of wonderful family! The blessing of sweet friendships! The blessing of the child we don’t yet know who is in Ethiopia! And lastly, the most important of them all, the blessing of the Lord’s great love and sacrifice for me! I truly serve an amazing God!

So as I entered this new decade, I decided that I wanted to celebrate with my sweet west Texas friends! I decided that a wreath making birthday party would be the best way to celebrate! Surrounded by friends and doing something I truly enjoy, crafting!

Since living in west Texas, the Lord has truly blessed me with some amazing friendships and I am so thankful for each one of them! I had such a great time hanging out with these girls and sharing life together while also making something beautiful.

This is definitely a birthday I will remember!🙂 And I look forward to seeing all the Lord has for me in my 30’s!

Today we received our DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) date! This is the date we have been waiting on and working towards for months and we are so happy to finally be at this point!! This means that today all of the paperwork that we have been working on (our Dossier) will be sent to the Ethiopian government and we are now officially on the waiting list for a baby!!! While we know that we still have many more months and years ahead of us of waiting, we are so thankful to be here in this place! Now we will just wait and pray for our little one while they are in Ethiopia (most likely not even born yet). We thank the Lord for getting us this far and drawing our hearts to adopt! We can’t wait to meet our baby and officially make them a Jimenez! Thank you Lord for this day!

I heard this song today and it was exactly what I needed to hear. It’s a reminder that even though I don’t always know what is in store for me or how things will end up, I serve a God who I can trust and who is reliable. A God who can carry me through storms and lead me into the clearing. A God who is steady, forgiving, loving, always by my side and faithful to the end! Thank you Lord for who you are!

Steady HeartWritten by: Steffany Gretzinger & Amanda Cook

I can’t seeWhat’s in front of meStill I will trust YouStill I will trust You

Steady heart that keeps on goingSteady love that keeps on holdingLead me onSteady grace that keeps forgivingSteady faith that keeps believingLead me on

Though the sky is dark And the wind is wildYou’ll never leave meYou’ll never leave me

Though the night is longThere is a coming dawnThe light is breakingThe light is breaking

Steady heart that keeps on goingSteady love that keeps on holdingLead me onSteady grace that keeps forgivingSteady faith that keeps believingLead me on

And as the dawn breaksAnd the clouds clearIn an open spaceTogether we will run

This past week Thursday marked 6 months that we have been paper chasing for our adoption. It was my hope that for sure by now we would be able to submit our dossier and be added to the list, but we are not yet at that point. Through this process we’ve had some hiccups along the way; one being with our home study and having to change social workers and redo meetings that we had previously done. Primarily our home study is the one major thing we are still lacking in order to submit our paperwork. However, we will also need to submit one other form after our home study is complete which I have read can take up to 3 months to receive back. It is my prayer that the Lord would show us favor and that our home study and this additional form would be received in a timely manner and we wouldn’t be at a stand still because of it. Waiting for things you have no control over can be hard sometimes. Yet I know this is only the beginning of our waiting. And really I should take comfort in the things that I can’t control because I know that God is the one in control of these things. So for now we are waiting. Would you join me in praying that things would move quickly and the Lord would have favor on us throughout this whole process? We are trusting Him.

These past few weeks have been crazy!! There have been countless days where I’ve either gotten up early before work or used my lunch break to get the required paperwork completed for our adoption. Whether is is getting forms notarized, mailing forms out at the post office, going to appointments, emailing forms, etc…it has seemed constant! Often I have felt completely worn out, exhausted and weary. Yet, when I take the time to be still and remember why we are doing all of this, it all becomes so very worth it! Every errand we run has purpose and meaning because I know that with each step we complete we become one step closer to bringing our baby home.

I long for the day when we finally will get to meet our child for the first time. When I will finally get to hold them in my arms, look into their beautiful eyes and tell them I love you and more importantly, Jesus loves you and cares so deeply about you. I truly look forward to that day!

So we will keep trekking on with perseverance because our baby (my little love) is so very worth it!

Psalm 127:3-5a
” Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! “